Teorías acerca de la creatividad o pensamiento creativo

The sacrament is the antetype of His flesh [caro].69 It is through the sacrament where we are enabled to abide in Christ [John 6:56]. These are the ‘conduit pipes of His grace, and seals of His truth unto us.’70

Andrewes says, ‘Grace and truth now proceeding not from the Word alone, but even from the flesh thereto united; the fountain of the Word flowing into the cistern of His flesh, and from thence deriving down to us this grace and truth, to them that partake Him aright.’71

Andrewes describes Jesus as ‘consubstantial, as the “Son;” coeternal, as the “Brightness;”

coequal, as “the Character;” against the new heads of the old hydra sprung up again in our days.’72

Therefore, it is Christ as man and God who has ‘made a bath of the water that came out of His side to that end opened, that from thence might flow a Fountain for sin, and for uncleanness—Water, and mixed with His Blood; as forcible to take out the stains of the soul, as any herb Borith in the world to take away the soil of the skin.’73

The purging of our sins he makes his own body an ‘electuary’. That electuary or what is defined as ‘medicine of life’ given for the forgiveness of sins is in his very own body really communicated in the taking, eating, and drinking of him. The 68 _{Andrewes, Works, I, 43.} 69 _{Andrewes, Works, I, 100.} 70 _{Andrewes, Works, I, 100.} 71 _{Andrewes, Works, I, 100.} 72 Andrewes, Works, I, 109. 73 Andrewes, Works, I, 113.

‘eternal Spirit in the sacrament is able to effectually purge the conscience from dead works or actual sins, and from the deadly effect of them; no balsam or medicine in the world like it.’74

The work of Christ was not only to purge us from our sins but to glorify us with him as well. He was not in need of any further glory for he had glory from all eternity prior to his assuming a human nature. He did this for our behalf. In so doing, Christ becomes our Alpha food and our Omega reward. He is the eschatological hope of our glory which is now and is to come in its fullness. He is first and last for all he does for us and this eschatological hope is given in the Eucharistic elements. It is the Alpha and Omega meal that moves us to the exaltation of the throne of God.75 For Andrewes, Word and Flesh go together and should not be parted. Therefore, by way of analogy, Word and flesh go together in the liturgy of the Church and Word and flesh in the unity of the sacrament. He said,

There is a correspondency between word and His brightness, and between the

Sacrament and His character. The word giveth a light, and His brightness seweth in it ad horam, and not much longer. The parts of the Sacrament they are permanent, and stick by us; they are a remembrance of the characters made in His skin and flesh. And if ye seek to be rid of your sins—‘this was broken for you,’ and ‘this was shed for you,’ for that very end, ‘the remission of sins.’ And so ye receive His Person, even Semet Ipsum; and in Semet Ipso, in His Person it was, ‘He purged our sins.’ And so, that a sure way.76

Here we see that though the characters or elements of the sacrament are

remembrances of his body and blood, we do not have the radical separation of the reality of what they are and what they do as we find in the neo-Nominalism of Cranmer’s expressions. The elements for Andrewes were more than mere names to describe certain things. Rather for him, to partake of the characters of the Eucharist was to partake of the flesh and blood of Christ. Partaking of the Eucharist was to

74 _{Andrewes, Works, I, 113.} 75 Andrewes, Works, I, 114. 76 Andrewes, Works, I, 116.

partake of the oneness of the reality of Christ who was word and flesh, God and man. The reality of the God-man was inseparable and therefore the realistic nature of presence with the characters was also inseparable. These material things do not stand in the way of understanding for Andrewes but actually communicate the reality of which they represent. The elements are not an approximation of the flesh and blood but are the flesh and blood of Christ. Andrewes is not looking beyond the elements to find Christ, rather Christ, for Andrewes, is within the elements themselves. Just as we do not look beyond the real flesh of Jesus to find God, rather we find God in the flesh of Christ. It is in this light that Andrewes spoke of the relationship between

Incarnation and the presence of Christ’s person in the elements.